Flower Shop Days
by SilentSnowfall
Summary: A boring day at the flower shop leads into Ino to reflect on the people she knows who regularly come into the Yamanaka flower shop: all the guys except one, the one she truly cares about.


**Well, this is my first story ever, so I hope it goes alright. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I never will.**

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Ino enjoyed working at her family's flower shop. In the years she had been there, she had realized it was an amazingly easy way to find out the latest news in relationships since it was always the best way to find out who had a "significant other."

If a particular guy started showing up at the store every so often to buy flowers, it was safe to say that he was involved with a girl, or at least had a very sick relative in the hospital that he was trying to cheer up.

Ino had quickly learned how to judge the reason behind buying flowers by the way that the men composed themselves in the store. A guy with drooping shoulders and a sad expression meant that they were there to get their girl a peace offering after some sort of fight or disagreement. The slight glimmer of hope in their eyes was _the_ defining trait that went along with the way they acted. When confidence radiated off a man and a mischievous facial expression adorned his face, it normally meant that he was planning on surprising his girl. And of course, the casual guys who just walk in and buy flowers and leave with slight smiles lighting their faces were always there.

Ino always loved seeing the latter of those men in her store. She always felt a tinge of jealousy for the girlfriends they were bound to have.

The bell chimed and a middle aged woman walked in and headed straight for the chrysanthemums. Ino greeted her and asked if she needed any help. At the response of "Oh, no, thank you." Ino leaned back onto the checkout counter and silently sighed.

Business had been slow that day and she was starting to get bored. She began to wonder if anyone she knew would come in to see her or to buy some flowers. It wasn't uncommon for men she knew to come in for a bouquet. She had often helped them pick out flowers that she knew would charm her female friends.

Naruto came in the most, she had noticed. Not because he was fighting with Hinata, or anything. He just liked to surprise his girlfriend with little presents. He would confidently walk through the doors, sporting a giant grin. He would call a greeting to her and then peruse the aisles and shelves until he was certain he found the perfect one. Sometimes he would spend the better part of an hour looking at the flowers until he decided. He was always so dedicated in his flower decisions; Ino couldn't help but wish she had someone so in love with her who would spend lots of time picking out a single flower.

Sasuke had also come into the shop a few times, looking to find Sakura something. He would walk in with his head held high, as if he were trying to make it seem that he was completely fine with being seen in a flower shop. It was always amusing watching him since she could always see the tinge of embarrassment he had. He would politely nod in her direction and then head off to look at the flowers. He was much quicker at making decisions than Naruto was, and it would normally only take him a few minutes to get the flowers that were deemed worthy enough for Sakura.

Neji was also a frequent customer at her shop. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't as good at hiding his embarrassment as Sasuke was, and it was always really easy to tell he was uncomfortable being in the shop. The first time Neji came into the store looking for flowers for Tenten, he was so unsure of what to get, he ended up having to ask Ino. She had helped him while trying to be as polite and as discreet about it as possible since she knew it was a major blow to his pride to have to ask for assistance.

The woman who had been shopping for chrysanthemums approached the counter and Ino wrapped the flowers into a bundle. The woman paid and left, and Ino was alone in the store once again.

Ino sat on a stool, looking outside at the street. Even that was empty. Usually when things got slow, she would watch the people in the street to pass the time. She saw someone she vaguely recognized walk by and it made her think of her friends again. She was pretty sure none of her friends would come by today, there were so many more interesting things to do than hang around in a flower shop. These lulls were really the only time she disliked working here.

Since she talked with her friends all the time about what was going on in their life, it was really easy to tell when some of the guys would be coming back to her shop. If one night Sakura would call, crying about an argument she and Sasuke had had, Ino could expect to see him come in a few days picking out apology flowers.

It was always hard in times like that to not immediately call Sakura and tell her it was going to be alright since she had seen a certain someone in the shop recently. Ino generally tried to keep her mouth shut about when the boys came in for flowers so that her friends could be genuinely surprised.

She still remembered the time Naruto had come in looking for a giant bouquet for Hinata. Naruto had asked for help picking the flowers that time, but refused to tell Ino what they were for. Even after a long time prodding with various questions, and then pretending to give up so that Naruto would hopefully let his guard down, Ino still wasn't sure what the flowers were for. She had her suspicions, but she kept them quiet so that Naruto wouldn't get even more defensive.

After he had left with many white and purple flowers, she had to really keep herself from calling Hinata and telling her what she thought. The next day, though, her suspicions had been proven correct when news of Naruto and Hinata's engagement reached her ears.

She thought back again to the people who have come into the store for flowers. Her old sensei Asuma used to come in here to get flowers for Kurenai, and then play dumb whenever she asked him about it. _Those were the good days._ She thought.

Even Sai had come in to buy flowers. He would give a sweet smile and ask her opinion on what to get. He did this for any of his friends who got hurt badly enough to land in the hospital. Or, at least he did until he realized guys don't like receiving flowers from other guys, even if they are friends. Only after someone had explained to him about flowers and the times it was appropriate to buy them for certain people, did he stop coming into the shop.

Ino sighed again and looked out a window into the sky. Really, only one of her friends had never habitually come into the store to buy flowers. _It's probably a good thing too._ She thought. _I don't know what I would do if I had to always see him walk out with a beautiful bouquet for another girl. But still, he could still come here to see me once in a while. It wouldn't kill him._

It was Shikamaru who hardly came to the store, but whenever he did, she got both a sense of exhilaration and dread. Exhilaration because it was, well, Shikamaru, the man she had finally admitted to herself that she liked. And dread because she never knew if he was coming in for flowers for a girlfriend.

So far, though, she was lucky because he only ever seemed to get flowers when his mom sent him on an errand for some. _One day, I would love it if he came to get flowers for __**me**__. _She scoffed quietly and immediately berated herself for ever dreaming about that. He was too tied up and busy with other things to ever look at her as more than just a friend. Plus, he was too lazy to actually pursue her.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice it when a person came into the shop until they called out to her. "Hey, Ino. You awake?"

She jumped at the sound and quickly turned to look at who was talking. "Sh-Shikamaru?" She asked, wondering if it could actually be the real person standing there, and not some figment of her desire.

"Yeah, who else could it be?" He replied, eyeing the look of surprise on her face. "Aren't you a ninja? Shouldn't you have been able to sense me come in?"

"Uh, I guess. I was just caught up thinking about, something." She said.

"Ah, well, whatever. My mom sent me here. She wants flowers for some get together tonight and is too lazy to get them herself." Shikamaru said as he began to walk toward the plants on display.

"You're complaining about _her_ being lazy? Aren't you being a little hypocritical?" She teased.

"Troublesome" he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear.

He looked at all the flowers and sighed, he had no idea what he was supposed to get. He had no idea what colors, let alone the breed. He just strolled up and down until Ino stepped in to help.

"Do you have any idea what kind of flowers your mom wants or likes?" Ino asked.

"Of course not. She just told me to get some." He responded while looking closely at a gardenia.

"I would just pick something bright, since it is a party after all." She supplied. Ino looked around and picked up some bright pink gladiolus. Then after looking around she decided upon some dark purpley-blue larkspur.

"See?" she explained "The colors go well together while providing some contrast at the same time. So now, I would suggest choosing other breeds that are different colors, okay?"

Shikamaru sighed as began looking around again. He immediately ruled out any flower that was a pink or a blue, and instead looked at the flowers that were orange and white. After thinking about it for a minute he chose a few orange lilies and some of the pale white gardenias.

He walked up to the counter where Ino was waiting and put the flowers down. "Do you know if you're supposed to get them wrapped?"

"Um, I don't know. I guess so." He said while Ino began to arrange the flowers.

"I really like the other colors you picked to go with the two I started you with. They all really complement each other." Ino could not believe she was talking to him about color choices, but for some reason, she just couldn't come up with anything slightly interesting to say. She wrapped the bouquet with black paper so that it wouldn't take away from the brilliance of the flowers. She made some finishing touches to the arrangement and accepted the money from him. Handing the flowers to Shikamaru, she told him to say hi to his mother for her and waved as he walked out.

She went back to her place on the stool as she waited for her shift to end, thinking about a certain someone who was walking back home with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

Two uneventful hours later Ino closed the shop and began her trip home, wondering how she was going to spend the rest of her night. Her friends probably all had plans with their boys, and she would be by herself again. The setting sun cast an orange light over everything as she walked toward her apartment. Even though she had done hardly anything all day, she was tired from sitting around waiting for customers, and all she wanted to do was go home and relax.

She reached her apartment and unlocked the door, entering into the dark room. She flipped on a light and headed for her bedroom. As she walked by the kitchen, however, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a vase sitting on her counter full of flowers, very familiar flowers. Flowers she had wrapped earlier that day.

She stared at the bright pinks, blues, oranges, and whites that the arrangement consisted of, and told herself that this was _definitely_ an illusion. There just was no way it could be true. Hadn't he said his mom asked him to get flowers? No, she was just tired and imagining things. She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if to rid herself of all images.

Fully expecting to see an empty counter, she opened her eyes. Nope. The vase was still there. Accepting, now, that the vase and the flowers were real, she walked up to them. On the counter beside them were a note and a key. She picked up the note and smiled to herself as she read it.

There was no disputing it. It was his handwriting, his kind of style, and his signature at the bottom. Feeling a lot more energetic than she did a few minutes ago, she took the vase and set it on the living room side table where it would get more sunlight.

Ino stood and looked at the vase again; shaking her head slowly in disbelief that one of her wishes had come true. She wondered if she should go see him now to thank him for the flowers, but decided that tomorrow would be better. She had waited for him for a long time, one more night couldn't hurt.

_Ino,_

_You really need to find a better place to hide your spare key. People could get in too easily._

_-Shikamaru_

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**Yay! I hope that you liked it! I wasn't really sure what I wanted him to say in the note, but I knew I didn't want him to be all "Here are these flowers," so I went with something that would be kinda amusing and maybe something he would say...**

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End file.
